Fan motor driving circuit, driving method, and cooling device and electronic machine using the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10644629-B2
Application number	US-201916274639-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 13, 2019
Priority date	Feb 16, 2018
Publication date	May 5, 2020
Grant date	May 5, 2020

Abstract

The present invention relates to a fan motor driving circuit, a driving method, and a cooling device and an electronic machine using the same. The present invention provides a motor driving circuit capable of suppressing strain on coil current and/or reducing noise. A control circuit a control circuit switches an output phase of an H-bridge circuit based on a Hall signal, and in a soft switching duration (Tss) that starts before and ends after the output-phase switching, slowly varies a duty ratio (DUTY1) of an output voltage (VOUT1) of one leg of the H-bridge circuit over time, and meanwhile, varies a duty ratio (DUTY2) of an output voltage (VOUT2) of another leg of the H-bridge circuit in an opposite direction with respect to the duty ratio (DUTY1) of the output voltage (VOUT1) of the one leg.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A fan motor driving circuit controlling a single-phase motor and comprising:
a driving-signal generating portion, generating a first PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) signal and a second PWM signal in a soft switching duration that starts before and ends after an output-phase switching of an H-bridge circuit connected to the single-phase motor, wherein a duty ratio of the first PWM signal varies in a first direction over time, and a duty ratio of the second PWM signal varies in a second direction opposite to the first direction while the duty ratio of the first PWM signal varies; and
a pre-driver, driving one leg of the H-bridge circuit based on the first PWM signal and driving another leg of the H-bridge circuit based on the second PWM signal.

2. The fan motor driving circuit of claim 1 , wherein in the soft switching duration, a summation of the duty ratio of the first PWM signal and the duty ratio of the second PWM signal is fixed.

3. The fan motor driving circuit of claim 1 , wherein the driving-signal generating portion comprises:
a first cycle-signal generator, generating a first cycle-signal;
a second cycle-signal generator, generating a second cycle-signal having a reversed phase relative to the first cycle-signal;
a pattern generator, generating a waveform-controlling pattern in the soft switching duration, the waveform-controlling pattern increasing or decreasing over time;
a first comparator, comparing the first cycle-signal with the waveform-controlling pattern, and generating the first PWM signal based on the comparing result; and
a second comparator, comparing the second cycle-signal with the waveform-controlling pattern, and generating the second PWM signal based on the comparing result.

4. The fan motor driving circuit of claim 3 , wherein the first cycle-signal and the second cycle-signal are triangle waves.

5. The fan motor driving circuit of claim 1 , wherein in a normal driving duration, a difference between the duty ratio of the first PWM signal and the duty ratio of the second PWM signal is variable with respect to a target number of revolutions of the single-phase motor.

6. The fan motor driving circuit of claim 5 , wherein a summation of the duty ratio of the first PWM signal and the duty ratio of the second PWM signal is 100%.

7. The fan motor driving circuit of claim 5 , wherein in the normal driving duration, one of the duty ratio of the first PWM signal and the duty ratio of the second PWM signal is 0% or 100%.

8. The fan motor driving circuit of claim 4 , wherein the driving-signal generating portion comprises:
a first cycle-signal generator, generating a first cycle-signal;
a second cycle-signal generator, generating a second cycle-signal having a reversed phase relative to the first cycle-signal;
a pattern generator, generating a waveform-controlling pattern in the soft switching duration, the waveform-controlling pattern increasing or decreasing over time;
a scaler, scaling the waveform-controlling pattern with a coefficient corresponding to the target number of revolutions;
a first comparator, comparing the first cycle-signal with an output of the scaler, and generating the first PWM signal based on the comparing result; and
a second comparator, comparing the second cycle-signal with an output of the scaler, and generating the second PWM signal based on the comparing result.

9. The fan motor driving circuit of claim 1 , wherein the driving-signal generating portion sets the soft switching duration based on a Hall signal representing a rotor position of the single-phase motor.

10. The fan motor driving circuit of claim 9 , further comprising a Hall element generating the Hall signal.

11. The fan motor driving circuit of claim 1 , wherein the fan motor driving circuit is integrated on one semiconductor substrate.

12. The fan motor driving circuit of claim 1 , wherein the H-bridge circuit is further integrated.

13. A cooling device, comprising:
a single-phase motor; and
the fan motor driving circuit of claim 1 , driving the single-phase motor.

14. A electronic machine, comprising:
the cooling device of claim 13 .

15. A cooling device, comprising:
a single-phase motor;
an H-bridge circuit, having an output connected to the single-phase motor;
a Hall element, generating a Hall signal representing a rotor position of the single-phase motor; and
a control circuit, switching an output phase of the H-bridge circuit based on the Hall signal, and in a soft switching duration that starts before and ends after the output-phase switching, slowly varying a duty ratio of an output voltage of one leg of the H-bridge circuit, and meanwhile, varying a duty ratio of an output voltage of another leg of the H-bridge circuit in an opposite direction with respect to the duty ratio of the output voltage of the one leg.

16. The cooling device of claim 15 , wherein in a normal driving duration, a difference between the duty ratios of the output voltages of the two legs of the H-bridge circuit is variable with respect to a target number of revolutions of the single-phase motor.

17. The cooling device of claim 16 , wherein a summation of the duty ratios of the output voltages of the two legs of the H-bridge circuit is 100%.

18. The cooling device of claim 16 , wherein in the normal driving duration, the duty ratio of the output voltage of the one leg of the H-bridge circuit is 0% or 100%.

19. A driving method for driving a single-phase motor, comprising:
generating a Hall signal representing a rotor position of the single-phase motor;
switching an output phase of the H-bridge circuit based on the Hall signal;
setting a soft switching duration that starts before and ends after the output-phase switching; and
in the soft switching duration, slowly varying a duty ratio of an output voltage of one leg of the H-bridge circuit, and meanwhile, varying a duty ratio of an output voltage of another leg of the H-bridge circuit in an opposite direction with respect to the duty ratio of the output voltage of the one leg.

Assignees

• Rohm Co Ltd

Inventors

• Noie Joji
• Mishima Tomofumi
• Gohara Yuki

Classifications

• H02P2209/00

  Indexing scheme relating to controlling arrangements characterised by the waveform of the supplied voltage or current · CPC title

• H02P25/04

  Single phase motors, e.g. capacitor motors · CPC title

• H02P7/04

  by means of a H-bridge circuit · CPC title

• H02M7/5395

  by pulse-width modulation · CPC title

• H02P1/42

  for starting an individual single-phase induction motor {(H02P27/04 takes precedence)} · CPC title